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VP/GM Bowman, Crawford discuss the goaltender's new deal

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Chicago Blackhawks
/ Chicago Blackhawks

Bowman on getting the deal done:It was obviously, like I mentioned [at the end of the season], a top priority for us. I can say I was confident all along that we were going to get Corey signed… He made it clear that he wants to be a Blackhawk. That means an awful lot to us. Obviously we’re very thrilled with the season he had and the future that he brings for us in net. We’ve finally got some stability in goal, which we haven’t had for a while.

Crawford on getting the contract out of the way:It means a lot. We weren’t thinking that much about it. I wanted to be a part of the Blackhawks, and the management and everyone there wanted me back too. It’s great to get it done early; now I can focus on workouts and getting prepared for next season.

Crawford on signing a three-year deal:We’re very happy with three years. I don’t know how much talk there was to have more than that. But I think for now that’s more than fine. I’m so excited to get back there and start next season. Bowman on Crawford’s postseason performance and its impact:It was really the culmination of a great season for Corey, so I think it kind of put the exclamation point on the fact that he’s a number one goaltender, especially his performance late in the series there. Down the stretch he played a number of games in a row… It seemed like he started every game for us and I think it was pretty apparent as we were fighting to get into the playoffs that he was carrying us every night, giving us a chance to win. And then we get into the playoffs and he had a great performance, so it was the perfect ending in that regard. It wasn’t the ending our team wanted, but Corey had a great playoffs for us. It’s not easy to do in your first playoff hockey experience, but he came through big for us.Bowman on his next priorities:We don’t know what the cap is going to be… We’ll know soon enough, probably about a month from now they’re going to release that. It’s not going to be too much different from where it’s at right now, so we’ve got a lot of plans in place… Our top priority was getting Corey signed. Now that we’ve done that, we’re going to move on to some of our other business at hand. We’re going to work on [the deals] concurrently… We’re preparing for the entry draft as well. So over the next four to five weeks we’re going to spend time getting ready for the draft as well as handling our players who need new contracts.